RECIPE – Cherry Ripe Bars by Katey Lee

This Cherry Ripe bar recipe has been submitted by Katey who blogs at Edinburgh Eats and Edinburgh Etiquette. The original recipe is by baking god Dan Lepard. We were lucky enough to sample a batch of these at a recent event of ours and can confirm they are indeed amazing!

Cherry Ripe bars

Cherry Ripe Bars

Ingredients:

For the dough

175g plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g unsalted butter, softened
50ml cold milk

For the cherry filling
600g glacé cherries
125g condensed milk
150g desiccated coconut
2 tsp vanilla extract
250g dark chocolate, chopped

Method:

1. Take a 18cm square cake tin – one with a removable base, ideally – butter the insides well and cover the base with a square of nonstick baking paper.

2. Put the flour, cocoa, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the butter until it’s utterly worked through and all the lumps have gone. Add the milk, and mix to a soft, even dough, then press this into the base of the tin firmly and evenly.

3. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4 and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until set and dry on top. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

4. To make the filling, put 400g of the glacé cherries in a food processor and mince very finely. Mix in the condensed milk, coconut and vanilla until you have a smooth, pink, coconut paste. Cut the remaining cherries in half, stir them through the mix, then spread it evenly over the chocolate base.

5. Return the tin to the oven, bake at the same temperature for a further 25 minutes, or until it’s starting to firm and go golden on top. Remove from the oven and leave until cold.

6. To finish the bars, melt the chocolate, spread this over the top and leave until cold before cutting into squares.

Mmmmmmmmmm

RECIPE – S’mores Cookie Bars by Jane Hutchison

In the first of our tried and tested recipes, we present ‘Smores Cookie Bars that were baked by Jane Hutchison.

The recipe was sourced from Heather Likes Food

Jane’s picture of the S’mores in progress

Ingredients

• 1 C butter (2 sticks)
• 1 C sugar
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 32 large marshmallow
• 1 1/2 C chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/4 C milk
• graham cracker crumbs for topping (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. For The Cookie Base
3. Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl until liquefied. Using a sturdy spatula, stir in both sugars and vanilla extract. Add in eggs and stir until well combined.
4. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt.
5. Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients and stir until no dry spots remain.
6. Spoon cookie dough into a greased 9×13? baking pan and spread into an even layer.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
8. Remove pan from oven and top with about 32 large marshmallow, or however many you can fit over the top.
9. Return cookie bars to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the marshmallows are puffy and melted.
10. Let cookie bars cool completely.
11. For the Chocolate Topping
12. In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate chips and butter. Begin to melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each break. Continue until all the chocolate has melted, but watch carefully as the chocolate can burn.
13. Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the milk.
14. Spread chocolate mixture over the cooled cookie bars. Allow the chocolate to set before slicing into squares.

Looks fabulous Jane!

REVIEW – Casa Angelina

Casa Angelina, Vintage Tea Room and Patisserie now open on London Street, Edinburgh

Casa Angelina has opened in London Street (at the bottom of Broughton Street) and we couldn’t wait to pay a visit. The photos they were posting on their Facebook page made our mouth water so much, we booked in for a full afternoon tea.

A warm welcome as we entered the basement property which has been completely revamped since its former owners, The French Fancies.

We were immediately hit with the wow factor as we examined the table full of cakes, scones and anything else sweet you could think of.

The owner greeted us and showed us to our table in the rear of the premises. It took us a while to get there as we oohed and aahed at the gorgeous vintage decor and took in our surroundings.

You instantly feel at home in Casa Angelina, which was the owners intention. The patisserie is run by  Marie-Claire Semeraro  who is a professional pastry chef. She has trained and worked for some of the most prestigious restaurants in the UK such as Rhubarb, The Balmoral, Harvey Nichols (London & Edinburgh), Hush and St John in London. Casa Angelina was named after Marie-Claire’s late Italian Grandmother.

As the afternoon tea was served to us, their expertise in preparing and presenting food was evident. We were blown away by the tier of goodies presented to us. Marie-Claire did talk us through each item, but like excited kids, we weren’t paying full attention to everything she told us. We liked what we saw and heard and just wanted to dive in!

 The afternoon tea is served with lashings of Eteaket tea. The ones we chose were: chocolate, Earl Grey and strawberries and cream over the course of the afternoon. There’s no limit on the number of teas you can try.

Our neighbouring table look over in envy at our tower of delights.

The warm goats cheese parcel and smoked salmon and cucumber wrap were savoury highlights and it was a refreshing change from the usual finger sandwiches.

The scones were served warm with butter,  a scoop of clotted cream and a choice of two homemade jams.

No complaints from us as we took a breather before hitting the final tier of treats.

The eclairs had lemon cream inside and were perfectly tangy. The opera cake was flavoured with Earl Grey and the amount of blueberries on the perfect tart base almost made it a healthy option!

The dessert highlight was the shot glass of strawberry and chocolate brownie. It didn’t look like an ordinary brownie but was extraordinary in taste.

We had been offered boxes to take any remaining items home, but it was clear from the empty cake stand that we would be saving on cardboard.

We relaxed in our seats and admired the pictures on the wall, the handmade doilies and the chest of vintage hats and clothes you’re allowed to dress up in if the mood takes you.

The savoury menu consists of soups (served with mature Isle of Mull cheddar scones) and beautiful sandwiches and salads.

Gluten free scones are always available and there’s an additional choice of two gluten-free cakes daily making Casa Angelina a perfect choice for coeliacs.

A table of delights

Prices for all food and drinks are very fair considering the quality served, with the afternoon tea coming in at £15 per person. Having tasted several afternoon teas around Edinburgh, we can honestly declare that Casa Angelina currently serves the best one in the ‘Burgh.

We further examined the main table of cakes on our way out and couldn’t resist buying a couple of extra goodies and a jar of homemade jam. Everything on the menu is also available to take away.

There are only a handful of tables in the rear, so best to book your space if you want to visit for a special occasion.

We’ll be back to Casa Angelina very soon as we want to try out their great breakfast choices and their lunches. And another afternoon tea……..

Highly recommended from us.

View from above

Information

Casa Angelina, 42 London Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6LX

Opening hours:

Tuesday – Friday: 8.45am – 6pm
Saturday: 9am – 6pm
Sunday:10am – 5pm

Casa Angelina are on Facebook and on twitter @Casa_Angelina

Website coming soon, email enquiries@casaangelina.co.uk

Telephone: 0131 558 1002

You can book out the rear for children’s afternoon tea parties (separate afternoon tea menu from the one we tried).

Suitable for disabled? Unfortunately Casa Angelina is down a set of stairs.

Suitable for children? Yes, very child friendly, with a play box of toys and baby changing facilities. High chairs also available.

Vintage decor

Cute touches

EVENT – It’s Good 2 Eat Cake, 7th May 2013 at Cafe Musa

Calling all Edinburgh Bakers and Edinburgh Eaters!

Our next event is on Tuesday 7th May 2013 and the theme of the evening is “It’s Good 2 Eat Cake”. – Event is sold out

Taking place from 6.30pm – 8.30pm at Cafe Musa (on The Mound), we’ll be raising money for our chosen charity It’s Good 2 Give by eating lots of cake!

As we all know, the Edinburgh Bakers absolutely love to eat cake……in fact we’re experts in this field!

A big thanks to our host – Cafe Musa

Eating cake for charity 
One of our Edinburgh Bakers, Wilma Webster, is going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro later this year, for It’s Good 2 Give. Wilma is completely funding the trip on her own, so 100% of the funds raised will go to this very worthwhile Edinburgh charity.

The event details
There are a total of 48 places available for this event, but we have already had people pledge a cake or volunteer as an eater as soon as the date was announced!

Everyone attending will be entitled to choose four generous slices of cake from the ‘cake menu.’ Lashings of tea, filter coffee (and squash for children) is also included in the ticket price.

Other drinks such as cappuccinos and fizzy cola can be bought at your own expense.

We understand that some people might not manage to eat four slices of cake within a two hour time frame, so are encouraging everyone to bring a tupperware box / container to take away what you can’t eat.

Also on the evening:

• Some great raffle prizes will be up for grabs, including our specially commissioned “It’s Good 2 Eat Cake” cake made by the lovely Lou of Loulabelle Bakes.

• Back by popular demand, the fabulous magician Elliot Bibby, will perform magic for us at this event. Elliot is a supporter of It’s Good 2 Give and was recently a finalist in Britain’s Got Variety. He wowed the attendees of our Underground Cake event at Mary King’s Close.

• All your baking questions can be answered – specially flown in from a secret coastal location…… (drum roll)…. “Ask Mrs P Kitchen Guru” stand. Donations to our charity fund gratefully accepted for all the great information that Mrs P is willing to share with you. No kitchen/baking question is too big or small to be answered by our resident kitchen guru.

• Spot prizes throughout the evening (just for attending the event, you might win something!)

Method 1 – Be an Edinburgh Baker and pledge a cake (+ £5 ticket)
There are only a handful of places left for ‘pledgers’. The menu of cakes for the event  is already really mouthwatering. Two examples already pledged are an almond praline cake and a lemon and blueberry sponge.

Method 2 – Become an Edinburgh Eater and come along and dive into the cakes! (£10)
We need eaters! For this event to work, we need people to come along and just eat cake! Perhaps you’ve known about us for a while, but were worried about your baking skills. Now is your chance to come and meet us all and eat cakes for charity.

How to secure a place
You can email us now at edinburghbakers (@) gmail.com and we will send you instructions on how to pay for your ticket(s) and secure your place/pledge your cake.

Children are welcome too, but please email us for a price dependent on the age of the child.

This event is on a first come first served basis. We hope to sell out the event, so please don’t delay in applying for your place.

The Edinburgh Bakers know how to make a good cake!

And finally
There will be an opportunity at the end of the event to purchase the remaining cake. Why not buy some for your family, or treat your office colleagues the next morning? Remember to bring a box with you to carry your cake purchases home.

Lynne McNicoll
We are honoured that Lynne McNicoll, the founder of the It’s Good 2 Give charity, will be joining us for the event and will answer any questions you may have about the work of the charity.

Extra information
The maximum numbers for the event is 48. A waiting list will be created if we sell out.

All tickets must be paid for within 4 working days, otherwise we will not continue with your ticket request.

Cakes can be handed into Café Musa on the day of the event to save taking up room in your office fridge!

The twitter hashtag for the event is #itsgood2eatcake

Disclaimer
If you attend our event, it is your responsibility to ensure you read the label of the cake and ensure that you’re not allergic to any ingredients i.e. nuts etc. If in any doubt, please choose another cake. We have had no incidents of illness in the hundreds of cakes we’ve eaten so far.

7th May, Cafe Musa – It’s Good 2 Eat Cake!

Round up of Towers of Terrific Tray bakes Take Two!

Last Wednesday saw the windows of Bon Papillon steam up due to 20 people within the gorgeous art gallery / cafe get giddy with excitement at the sweet offerings.

It was also our first meeting as the Edinburgh Bakers after changing our name to reflect the wide scope of men, women, children (and babies) who attend our events.

A big thank you to our hosts, Ingrid and Stuart who gave us a special mention in their weekly blog.

The tray bakes disappeared fast!

Other Edinburgh Bakers who attended the event and have blogged include:

Janis – Gluttons for Punishment

Adele – Queen of Everything

Lucy – A Small Insight

Don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list, details of our next event will be released tomorrow! It’s an event for both bakers and eaters on 7th May at Cafe Musa.

Loving the retro record stand for the lemon drizzle cake

Hello Edinburgh Bakers!

This blog looks familiar doesn’t it?

That’s because it’s the exact same as before, the only thing we’ve done is change our name.

As of today, we are now known as the Edinburgh Bakers, but will always have fond memories of our ‘maiden’ name, the Edinburgh Cake Ladies.

We wanted our new name to reflect the fact that our meetings and events are for everyone, not just ladies.

Also, we don’t discriminate against any forms of baking/eating, we’re all about the sweet things and savoury!

Please bare with us as we check all our links work and make people aware of our name change. The only thing we couldn’t swap over was our Facebook page, so have had to start a new one. If you could give a little love to the new Edinburgh Bakers page, it would be appreciated.

Our new contact details are:

Email: edinburghbakers (at) gmail.com

Facebook – Facebook.com/Edinburghbakers

Twitter – @EdinburghBakers

You can sign up to our mailing list (we will never spam you).

Don’t worry if you still email / tweet the old name, we’ll direct you to the new one!

Mailing list and upcoming events

New mailing list / newsletter alert

Hello everyone!

The purpose of this blog post is to migrate the hundreds people that subscribe to this blog onto a mailing list.

It’s much easier for us to do a mail out that a new blog post all the time since different people do the admin for the group, but we will still do blog posts with photos after an event.

So if you wish to keep in touch with what’s happening in our cake world,  please sign up to our mailing list/newsletter

We won’t ever spam you with teeth-whitening offers or another annoying mailouts, but we may mail you from time to time about a new cake shop in Edinburgh, or an impromptu event!

You can opt out at any time, but rest assured, we only have cake love for you.

Upcoming events

March 20th – Towers of Terrific Tray bakes Take Two at Bon Papillon (event is full, waiting list in place).

Friday 26th April – Lashes and Tashes party (see picture below). 7pm – midnight. Also raising money for It’s Good 2 Give, you can go dressed up wearing either a set of lashes or a moustache to this disco and buffet at 28 York Place.

Tuesday May 7th, 6.30 – 8.30pm in Cafe Musa, “It’s Good 2 Eat Cake”.

A charity event to raise money for Wilma climbing Kilimanjaro and It’s Good 2 Give. Every penny raised will go to the charity as her trip is self-funded.

We need cake pledgers and there will also be room for lots of ‘eaters’ at this event. We will be doing a full blog post soon, but if you’d like donate a cake / get a ticket now, you can do, just drop us an email: edinburghbakers (@) gmail.com and we’ll send you more information.

Sunday 9th June, time too be confirmed, city centre venue.

A family cake and quiz event, again to raise money for It’s Good 2 Give. Lots of fun for all the family. More details in due course, but put the date in your diary.

Our 3rd birthday is in April

We will be celebrating our 3rd birthday in April, so watch out for a ‘flash’ cake event. This is why you need to be on the mailing list as everyone uses email, but not everyone uses social media to spread word of an impromptu event!

Raising money for It’s Good 2 Give

In the papers again!

Yesterday (Saturday 8th March 2013) we appeared in the Daily Record.

A last minute journalist request via twitter on whether some of our ladies and gents used baking for ‘therapy’ led to Wendy being plastered over two pages of the Scottish national newspaper!

Edinburgh Cake Ladies in the Daily Record

We’ve not found a link on line yet, but Wendy talked about how we started and It’s Good 2 Give and general cake camaraderie.

Tickets available for It’s Good 2 Give’s afternoon tea

Christmas Afternoon Tea – Sunday 8th December 2013, 2pm – 5pm

#itsgood2eatcake

After the roaring success of the 2012 afternoon tea for It’s Good 2 Give where over 44 Edinburgh Cake Ladies listened to a delightful choir in sumptuous surroundings and munched their way to happiness – we’re pleased to announce that this year’s event will take place on Sunday 8th December.

Yes, we know it’s only the beginning of the year but we have been given an allocation of tickets for the event to fill with Cake Ladies, but the rest of the spaces are already sold out.

Prices are remaining the same at £25pp as an ‘early bird’ offer.

There is a Facebook event page and our new general hashtag for anything that supports our chosen charity It’s Good 2 Give is #itsgood2eatcake

We also have a couple of more events up our sleeves to raise money that will positively welcome cake eaters as well as those that bake.

A tower of cakes!

To take the admin away from Lynne, we’re happy to organise payment as we did before and do one transaction to the charity.

Requests for tickets will close at the end of March or until they sell out.

Thanks to everyone who followed last year’s instructions to the letter and made life very easy for us.

If you wish to come to the afternoon tea this year, please follow the instructions below. If you made a payment for tickets last year, it is the same bank account, so you wont have to wrestle with your card reader again.

If you wish to purchase a ticket (or tickets), please follow these instructions (sorry for the rules, but it will make our lives easier).

1.  Email us on edinburghcakeladies (at) gmail.com with your request for a ticket. If you wish to buy more than one, you MUST declare it at this stage. You should write the names of the people that you wish to attend.

i.e  Alison Cake & Victoria Smith (2) – £50 total.

By doing it this way, we will guarantee you sit with the people you buy tickets with. If you are just buying a ticket for yourself, you will be seated with other lovely Edinburgh Cake Ladies.

You may only bring one ‘non’ cake friend, i.e someone not already involved in the club. There are many other supporters of It’s Good 2 Give that would also like to go to this sought after event.

2. In return, you will be given the bank account details of where to send your payment to.

3. Make the payment to this bank account CLEARLY SPECIFYING YOUR NAME so it can be linked to your ticket(s). Failure to do this causes administration headaches trying to tie the payment to the person who applied. Your payment will be immediately returned if there is no name attached. Please taken into account maiden and married names that may not match in your email / bank.

4. If your payment is not received within 5 working days of applying, we will not continue with your ticket request.

5. Once your payment has been received, you will receive an email saying that you have been successful in transferring money. At this stage, your ticket(s) are guaranteed.

6. Tickets will be issued on a first come first served basis.

7. Sorry for all the rules, but understandably if 40 people apply for tickets and 20% of them make an error, that’s a lot of paperwork (emails etc) in chasing people up.

8. We are aware this event is still a long time away, but it has already sold out to the public and better to have the money in the charity’s bank account gaining interest etc.

9. If you subsequently can’t make it, then you can either nominate a friend to go in your place, or we will try to find someone via our social media channels.

If this is not possible, then the money will be classed as a ‘donation’ to the charity. Tickets are non-refundable.

10. The start time of the event is 2pm.

The room set up for the December 2012 afternoon tea

Attendees for the Towers of Terrific Tray bakes Take Two event are….

Well it seems 2013 is going to be a busy year for us after a overwhelming amount of applications for the places for our March event.

It’s hard to get it right as we had spaces left at January’s event but this one we could fill twice over and have closed applications early to avoid more disappointed people.

Below are the people that were drawn from a hat with the exception of the hosts & organisers. The other exception is our charity patron Lynne who works so hard, she deserves to sit down with a cuppa and cake lady Michelle who has just had a gorgeous baby boy so we have gifted her a place!

Attendees and tray bakes….

• Ingrid and Stuart (Bon Papillon hosts)
• Pamela (organiser) – Rocky road
• Wilma (organiser) – ‘Banana and walnut squares’
• Alison  – Malteser tray bake
• Lynne (our charity patron) – TBA
• Michelle – Alfie!
• Sue – Date slice
• Marie-Joelle – Bienenstich w/ rhubarb (missed East West cake due to sickness)
• Lynsey – Fifteens
• Victoria – Nanaimo bars
• Lucy Cameron – Rocky Road fudge
• Clare Taylor – Lemon drizzle
• Adele – Brigadeiros
• Katey – Chocolate cherry slice
• Susan (and daughter Helen) – flapjacks
• Fiona – Rolo slice
• Wendy – Tomato soup tray bake  (no longer attending, Janis from waiting list in her place)
• Rachel McWilliams – Chocolate and almond slice
• Lou – Apricot and coconut slice (missed East West cake place due to illness)

Waiting list

• Janis – now attending
• Kay Wright
• Pauline Tillotson
• Jane H – can no longer make it
• Lucy Torres

People do normally drop out for one reason or another, so don’t despair and keep checking your inbox for a last minute cancellation for a place that you can step into.

For those that haven’t been to an event before, please arrive with your tray bakes ready to display (saves venue cleaning 18 + extra plates) and a Tupperware box to take what you can’t eat home!

We’ll supply a label, so please let us know if you deviate from your original bake.

Drinks are bought from the venue at your own expense.